A Bakersfield father is accused of kidnapping, raping and trying to kill his 8-year-old daughter. Hear the full 911 call from Wednesday morning, July 27, 2011, when the girl's stepmother discovered her missing from her bed. The 911 audio was provided Friday by the Kern County Sheriff's Office

A Bakersfield man who kidnapped his then 7-year-old daughter, raped her and left her for dead in a remote field was sentenced to 34 years to life Thursday in Kern County Superior Court.

Ray Salvador Coriell, 33, had accepted a plea deal in the case, pleading no contest to three sex crime and attempted murder charges in June. He would have faced multiple life terms without parole had he been convicted of all 11 original charges.

Coriell’s daughter, now 11 years old, was reported kidnapped from her central Bakersfield home on July 27, 2011, and was found four hours later nine miles away in east Bakersfield.

The child woke up under a couch and made her way to a nearby neighborhood to seek help. She’d suffered a severe black eye, swelling, bruising and other injuries, some serious enough to require surgery.

The Californian does not identify victims of sex crimes. The girl wrote a statement about her ordeal that her stepmother, who has since divorced Coriell, read in court.
“He ruined my childhood,” the stepmother read. “I honestly felt betrayed and lived a life I never wanted.”

As she spoke, the daughter, who was in the audience, sat erect, nodding slightly.

Coriell, wearing a green prison jumpsuit, stood in a corner with shoulders slumped as the statement was read. His expression appeared strained.

The girl’s mother also read a statement.

“I just want to remind the court that there are many, many people who have been affected by this case,” she said, her voice breaking at times.

The family agreed to the plea deal because it wanted to move on, the mother said, but added, “No matter how long he sits in prison, we have to deal with what has happened the rest of our lives. It doesn’t just go away. It’s going to be there.”

Coriell was sentenced to 25 years to life for sexual assault of a minor, and nine years for attempted murder, to run concurrently. He was also sentenced to six years for continuous sexual abuse of a child, to run consecutively.

Coriell will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

The girl and her mother and stepmother embraced after the hearing, and the mother wiped away tears. They declined an interview request.

Defense attorney Michael Lukehart said he thought the plea deal was equitable, all things considered, and that his client felt remorse.

“Mr. Coriell knew very, very well that what happened was wrong, and that he was going to pay a significant price for it,” he said.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Andrea Kohler said prosecutors were happy with the outcome, as well.

“We’re very pleased that the victim can now move on with her life,” she said. “This was just a horrible, horrible crime, a horrible, horrible, horrible part of her life.”

The 2011 abduction was also a “dark day” for all of Kern County, Kohler said, noting that FBI agents, deputies and paramedics involved in the case had all been willing to testify, even flying in from outside the area in a few instances, because everyone felt so passionately about the need for justice.

“Some of the deputies were in court today,” she said. “They wanted to be here.”

Coriell told authorities he had been on the far west side of Bakersfield when his then-wife called early in the morning to say his daughter was missing from the couple’s home in the 600 block of Loch Lomond Drive.

In fact, mobile phone records show that shortly after 4 a.m., Coriell was within 1.6 miles of a cell tower at 600 Fairfax Road, which is near where the girl was found in east Bakersfield four to six hours after she was reported missing.

During those hours, authorities put out word that a young child had been abducted and sought the public’s help in locating her. After the little girl was found, the entire region breathed a sigh of relief.

The next day, Coriell sent a text phone message to his now ex-wife indicating he’d been sexually assaulted in the past and was suicidal. Authorities swarmed the home and a SWAT standoff dragged on for seven hours before Coriell surrendered.

Coriell told investigators he’d had trouble sleeping the night of the abduction and gone to his sleeping daughter’s room. Then everything “went black,” he said.

I remember it like it was yesterday, Ben Richards (a helicopter pilot for the police department) took to the sky and cowardly fired upon and killed several innocent men, women, and children who were only out looking for food. Forever known as The Bakersfield Massacre. Tragic.

I remember it like it was yesterday, Ben Richards (a helicopter pilot for the police department) took to the sky and cowardly fired upon and killed several innocent men, women, and children who were only out looking for food. Forever known as The Bakersfield Massacre. Tragic.